A study of the indian apparel market and the consumer purchase behaviour of apparel among management students in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai

Apparel is one of the basic necessities of human civilization along with food, water and shelter. The Apparel Industry reflects people's lifestyles and shows their social and economic status. The Apparel and Textile industry is India's second largest industry after the IT Industry. College students as a young consumer group have gained significant importance from marketers in recent years because of their growing purchasing power. They have easy access to credit cards and income from part-time jobs to spend. Students tend to spend money on clothing and beauty products, and find these items to be important. Therefore, college students’ apparel shopping orientation is important to research because it is an important sector of consumer behavior. The purpose of the study is to understand the Indian apparel market in terms of market size and growth and to study the important demographic, psychological and socio-economic factors which influence the consumer purchase behaviour for apparel with reference to college going students, especially management students. First a secondary study was done on the apparel market in India through books and the internet. Then a questionnaire was prepared to collect primary data from management students of different areas, family income, gender, and attitude regarding purchase behaviour of apparel. The collected data was then analysed using various quantitative tools. The relation between various demographic variables and consumer behaviour on apparel is expected to be understood. Apparel companies can target the right target segment in terms of gender, age group, family income, personality, culture etc. by understanding the preferences of the students and can devise strategies to enable the students to access their products easily.